A disgraced therapist convicted of child abuse is forming groups to counsel vulnerable inmates in prison, according to the director of a new Netflix documentary.
Jodi Hildebrandt, 56, who is serving up to 30 years for aggravated child abuse alongside YouTuber Ruby Franke, has continued the same patterns of behaviour that led to her conviction, filmmaker Skye Borgman has revealed.
The former family counsellor is actively seeking out prisoners with drug and alcohol addictions at Utah State Correctional Facility, where she has been incarcerated since 20 February 2024.
'[Jodi] was creating these little groups of women and talking to them about addiction, and seeking out people who have drug addictions or alcohol addictions', Borgman told Netflix Tudum. 'She's looking for people who have vulnerabilities and trying to coach them or counsel them within this prison structure. So, it seems like she's continuing to do what she was doing outside.'
Manipulating From Inside Prison
Audio clips and interviews with prison guards featured in Borgman's documentary Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, which premiered on Netflix on 30 December 2025, show Hildebrandt using the same manipulative language she deployed through her now-defunct life-coaching business, ConneXions, according to Primetimer.
Former clients who appear in the film have described long-lasting psychological harm from Hildebrandt's methods.
Prosecutor Eric Clarke stated he hopes Hildebrandt serves more than the minimum sentence. 'I hope that she isn't out of prison until everybody is completely confident that she's no longer a risk', Clarke said, according to CBS19 News.
Clarke added that telephone conversations will be provided to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole showing Hildebrandt 'repeatedly [claiming] that she is the victim and the children are the perpetrators'.
Parole Hearing Set for December 2026
Hildebrandt's first parole hearing is scheduled for December 2026.
The hearing could result in a release date, another review being scheduled, or a decision for Hildebrandt to serve the full 30 years.
Before the hearing, Hildebrandt must undergo cognitive behavioural therapy and a complete mental health evaluation.
At her sentencing, Clarke said Hildebrandt had shown 'little to no remorse for her actions' and called her 'a significant threat to the community', per Today.
The Crime That Shocked America
Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke, 43, were arrested on 30 August 2023 after one of Franke's children escaped from Hildebrandt's home in Ivins, Utah.
The 12-year-old boy, who weighed just 67 pounds (30 kilograms), climbed through a window and knocked on a neighbour's door, begging for food and water. He appeared emaciated and had open wounds with duct tape still wrapped around his wrists and ankles.
Police found Franke's 10-year-old daughter inside Hildebrandt's house in a similar state of severe malnourishment.
Both children had been starved, bound with rope and handcuffs, and told they were 'evil and possessed'.
The boy had deep lacerations from being tied up, which were treated with cayenne pepper and honey before being wrapped in duct tape.
In one particularly cruel instance, Hildebrandt forced the young girl to repeatedly jump on a cactus, according to her plea agreement.
Previous Ethical Violations
This was not Hildebrandt's first professional misconduct.
In 2012, her counselling licence was placed on probation for 18 months after she disclosed sensitive confidential information about a former client to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University without consent, according to Utah Department of Commerce documents.
The Church removed Hildebrandt from their Family Services referral list as a result.
The Utah Department of Commerce's Division of Professional Licensing permanently revoked her clinical mental health counselling licence on 10 May 2024.
The Sentence and What's Next
Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse in December 2023.
She was sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years each on 20 February 2024, the maximum sentence for each count under Utah law. Because consecutive sentences in Utah cannot exceed 30 years, that is the maximum time she can serve.
She is currently held at the Utah State Correctional Facility's Dell Facility in Salt Lake City, in a separate unit from Ruby Franke.
Ruby Franke received the same sentence, and her first parole hearing is also set for December 2026.
All four of Ruby Franke's youngest children now live with their father, Kevin Franke, who was granted full custody after their divorce was finalised in March 2025.
Kevin has emerged as a public voice warning that the system failed his children.
'Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day', he confessed in February 2025, per Biography.
